


tendrils of night

by saunatonttu



Category: Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
Genre: Canon Major Character Death, M/M, ephlyon week day 1: light/darkness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-21
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2020-12-27 17:37:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21122657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saunatonttu/pseuds/saunatonttu
Summary: The brighter the light, the darker the shadow.





	tendrils of night

The brighter the light, the darker the shadow it cast in its wake.

Ephraim had always been as bright as the sun – and he only grew brighter and brighter over the years, sunlight clinging to him like a lover, praise sung to him like birdsong. Even in hardship, Ephraim was always the uncontestable winner. A man bards would tell tales about for generations to come.

If you looked close enough in the shadows Ephraim cast behind him… there you would find Lyon, always trailing behind like a lost child, drowning in his sorrow and defeat while Ephraim glowed in his joy and victory.

And like so, Lyon’s own feelings shifted between two extremes.

He liked Ephraim.

He resented Ephraim.

The stronger his adoration, the starker his jealousy grew.

But where the light looked, it could not see the darkness – for the light’s back would always be turned to it, never to look back and set its gaze upon the absence of itself.

“Lyon, won’t you join me? General Duessel is teaching me.”

_a pitiful prince, aren’t i?_

“I’m sorry, Ephraim… I don’t think I will.”

_i’ll never be a match for you._

“Some sun and exercise would do you good, don’t you think? You’re always stuck inside…”

_would father be more at ease if i were more like you?_

“You know I prefer it. You need to be going, don’t you? General Duessel is going to scold you if you keep him waiting…”

_would you look at me like I was worth your time, too?_

“…Ah, you’re right. I’m sure Duessel will forgive me if I say I was with you, however. Let’s go out when I’m done. You, I, and Eirika.”

_oh, don’t smile like that, Ephraim. _

“Ephraim… you still have that assignment for Father McGregor unfinished, don’t you?”

_don’t smile like you treasure me as I do you._

“I was hoping you wouldn’t remember that.”

_can’t I – _

Ephraim laughed, and the sound of it reverberated in Lyon’s mind and heart even as he retreated into Grado Keep, to the safety of books and research. Away from the dangers of Ephraim’s lopsided smile.

_can’t I stand by your side, as your equal?_

In the absence of light, darkness reigned. Ephraim was the sun, and he was gone, and Lyon was the dark side of the moon that reflected no light in the night. Insecurities crawled in like insects on summer nights, buzzing incessantly in his mind as his father’s health worsened and Grado’s disaster loomed in the distant horizon that was future.

He stood at his father’s bedside, listened to the Emperor of Grado’s labored breathing, and knew that once distant future was close. Too close.

His dying father breathed more easily than he did.

_help me? _

It wasn’t Ephraim’s voice that answered him in his time of need: _only if you destroy this Stone, will you gain my strength, princeling._

The sun stayed away from Grado that day, not a sliver of its blessed light to be seen as the Sacred Stone dimmed into the Dark Stone between Lyon’s hands.

“I have always loved you. I have always _hated_ you,” Lyon told him, a strange giddiness in him that didn’t match how thin and tight his skin felt around his bones, how the rot in his soul had spread to his flesh.

For once, Ephraim looked as pale as Lyon as he stared at him, disbelieving horror slowly emerging onto the face of the brave man Lyon had admired and envied (wanted) for so long.

“Lyon,” Ephraim choked, “wait, I—”

Lyon smiled.

And then he vanished.

The sick part of him enjoyed making Ephraim chase him.

Each day, the sunset came and snatched the sun away, enveloping the world in darkness. In winter, the sun was often away longer than it stayed, ever the fickle with its affections.

Lyon had been stuck in his own winter for long, long months now, his old convictions of right and wrong frozen still.

But there was a sun chasing him – twin suns, really, for both were bright and dazzling – and Lyon wanted to snuff him out.

Just once, he wanted to best him. Just once, and he would be good enough…! He would save everyone with the strength that ground his spirit to dust, his old self into unrecognizable mess.

And yet, every morning, darkness would stand aside from the way of the sun’s return. It was inevitable. A new dawn begins with the rise of the sun, the banishment of darkness. (Shadows remain – yet, what power do shadows have against the sun itself?)

“Here I come, Lyon.”

_Well, come then._

Siegmund pierced him, precise in how it skewered his gut, yet avoided his heart. A sordid laugh escaped Lyon then, blood gurgling past his lips with it.

Ephraim’s kindness had always been the kind that hurt the most.

It hadn’t changed over the years.

“Lyon,” Ephraim said, and Lyon knew not if it was chastisement or sorrow that coated his name and the repeat words from before, “you should never have taken this path.”

_And yet I did, and I still wasn’t a match for you –_

The light, Lyon finds as he lies there on the precipice of death, is still so blinding.

_I wished – I wished to save you, Lyon –_

_I wished you could have, too._


End file.
